Question:
What type or brand of IOL?
Answer:
This is important because some are much less likely to cause
"capsule opacification" than are others. Capsule opacification
is a sort of secondary cataract that may appear year or so after
IOL surgery. It can usually be burned away with a laser as an
in-office (non surgical) procedure, but it's probably better to
avoid it if you can. If your surgeon insists that all types of
IOL have the same risk of causing capsule opacification, get
another surgeon.
Taking into account your surgeon's advice for your own case,
consider waiting as long as possible before actually having the
surgery. This will make the limitations of IOLs less objectionable
and their benefits more welcome. (That may sound like some goofy
mind game, but studies show it does help to improve satisfaction with
the result. My own experience supports this.) But don't wait so
long that you become a danger to yourself or others. For example,
don't drive if you can't see. Also, waiting a long time allows the
cataract to become "ripe", which can make it more difficult to
remove and more difficult to correctly fit the IOL. (There is
some variation in how the term "ripe" is used. Some use it to mean
"it's now time to remove the cataract". Others use it to mean
"completely opaque and hard", which would usually be far past the
time to remove the cataract.)
